[TFFKAMM]

A friend of mine has a theory about beer and wine being the true linchpins of civilization. He says that once humans learned how to ferment and drink alcoholic beverages, it influenced everything from agriculture, to law, to economics, to religion and morals.

If I can ever get him to deliver a concise, coherent version of this theory, I'll post it on a Booze ping...

[Blue Screen of Death]

A friend of mine has a theory about beer and wine being the true linchpins of civilization. He says that once humans learned how to ferment and drink alcoholic beverages, it influenced everything from agriculture, to law, to economics, to religion and morals.

Not to mention that it allowed ugly women to reproduce. We frequently see the results today.

[SunkenCiv]

Your friend's not the first:

Beer Brewing Paralleled the Rise of Civilization
Kurt Stoppkotte
for National Geographic News
April 24, 2001
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0424_kurtbeer.html

and for health nuts:

"Antibiotic" Beer Gave Ancient Africans Health Buzz
John Roach
for National Geographic News
May 16, 2005
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0516_050516_ancientbeer.html

[weegee]

It is a skill that has been discovered and "forgotten" a number of times in the history of man.

Have to wonder how many times it was "forgotten" because of forced prohibition.

[Alouette]

once humans learned how to ferment and drink alcoholic beverages, it influenced everything from agriculture, to law, to economics, to religion and morals.

Is that why Muslims are so p!$$3d off all the time? Because they can't crack open some cold ones.

[Chode]

i don;t know about your friend, but here's my take as to why:

Beer was the foundation of civilization.

Man was a hunter of meat and gatherer of seeds.
One day he ate some seed that had gotten wet and had fermented.
He caught a BUZZzzz and liked the way it felt.
It took awhile for him to connect the dots in the wet grain/fermentation process to the buzzz... but he did.
He said to himself, hummm, instead of chasing the crops, if I stay in ONE PLACE and plant this stuff I can have all the wet grain I need to get buzzzed on???
Simple... instant farmer / civilization.